SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : New Tenant Sought for Old Building

It has been a brothel, a bar, a restaurant and a beer parlor in its nearly 70-year history.

So what’s next for the faded downtown structure most recently called the San Juan Saloon? That’s just what city officials here are eager to find out.

The city, which owns a 35-year lease on the 3,900-square-foot, two-story building near Mission San Juan Capistrano, is looking for a new tenant.

“We’d like to get it occupied again,” said Councilman Lawrence F. Buchheim, a rancher.

The council is looking for proposals from “an entrepreneur/developer with a unique and creative approach” for the former saloon, but there is a caveat--no alcohol sales.

“We’re not going from the frying pan into the fire,” Buchheim said. “It is a wonderful downtown location right across the street from the movies, but we don’t want another saloon there--at least I don’t.”

It was just longer than a year ago that the city paid $100,000 to San Juan Saloon owner Donna Timney to vacate the building, Buchheim said.

Before it was called the San Juan Saloon, the establishment was known as Mexico Lindo, a restaurant and bar still remembered warmly, said Tony Forster, a rancher and former mayor.

“I can remember many fun times there,” Forster said. “I got hit in the head more than one time in that place.”

Forty years ago, one of San Juan Capistrano’s many Basque families ran a restaurant there that served a French-dip sandwich that made an impression on a then-young Forster. “I can remember seeing a French-dip sandwich on the menu when no one in town knew what a French-dip sandwich was,” Forster said. “Boy, they were good.”

The building is represented as structurally sound, but a developer will need to install electrical and plumbing equipment and make the structure accessible to the handicapped, according to a city report.

There will be walk-through of the building open to the public at 2 p.m. Thursday.